"We will ensure that our government never opens the door to the use of cloning for human reproduction. It is dangerous, profoundly wrong, and has no place in our society, or any society."

Agreed.

But when the only difference (see page 4 here) between cloning human embryos for research and cloning human embryos for reproduction is that the living embryo in the latter scenario actually gets to stay alive--well, any comfort Obama's promise gives me is utterly reversed.

Comments:

Beyond even the moral problems, the argument that only "leftover" frozen embryos will be used is deceptive. The numbers show that any hope of using ESC for human treatments will inevitably require the creation of human embryos specifically for research, and it will also involve "therapeutic" cloning, which as the original poster wrote is morally indistinguishable from reproductive cloning.
Here is my post detailing the numbers of frozen embryos currently available for research and why it will not be enough to satisfy the needs of ESCR:
"The Slippery Slope of Embryonic Stem Cell Research"
http://reasonableanswers.blogspot.com/2009/03/slippery-slope-of-embryonic-stem-cell.html

Posted By: Kendalf on March 11, 2009 2:04 PM

Soetoro has his morality exactly inverted on this one. Woe be to those who call good 'evil,' and evil; 'good.' Woe to you, Barry Soetoro.

Posted By: labrialumn on March 09, 2009 11:36 PM

"They're not fully human, only close; they're going to be destroyed anyway; we might as well get some good from them by using them for medical experimentation that can save lives."
So who is this talking about: embryos or Jews at Auschwitz? Mengele would be proud.

Posted By: Glenn Sunshine on March 09, 2009 8:40 PM

Good question. Perhaps he can answer that one right after he explains why abortions should be legal and rare.

Posted By: David on March 09, 2009 7:28 PM

Just once, I'd like to see a reporter ask Obama: "So, Mr. President--why is it wrong?"
I think he's just trying to pacify critics by throwing them a bone. Nobody was going to start cloning humans (the kind that would be allowed to live) anyway, so it's an empty promise.